on every Jewish household.
1586 Pope Sistus V grants Jews the right to live in cities and practise any profession, especially silk weaving, which Sicilian Jews had brought from the South.A common Jewish surname remains Della Seta (of the silk). By the end of the 16th c. the Jewish population of Rome is over 3,000.
1634 Urban IV establishes the House of Catechumens near the Church of the Madonna deiMonti. Jews are impoverished by heavy taxes.
1647 The Ghetto, an unhealthy area on the bank of the Tiber, is flooded.
Pope Leo X by Raphael
disposed to Jews. Several Popes have Jewish doctors. Hebrew texts are printed in Rome. Important personalities include the poet and physician Josef Zarfati and the philosopher and Pentateuch commentator Obadia Sforno.
1526 The Descripto Urbis records 373 Jewish families (1,772 people) in a city of 54,000.
1527 Charles V of Spain’s troops sack Rome. The city and the Jewish population suffer. Rabbis are consulted over grounds for Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
1542 The Counter-Reformation. The Inquisition begins in Rome and the Church wages a campaign to convert the Jews by offering privileges. Hostels for converts are set up in theMercatello area.
1543 The Talmud is burned in Campo dei Fiori on Rosh Hashana.
The Jews present a Torah scroll to the newly elected Pope, B. Picarrt 1725
IN THE GHETTO
1555 Ghetto established. Pope Paul IV in the Papal Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum condemns all Jews to live in ghettoes. The Rome Ghetto is established in Rione Sant’Angelo, where 1,750 Jews, their work restricted to picking rags and selling second-hand goods, are allowed only one synagogue – so five distinct congregations or Scole – Catalan, Sicilian, Castilian, together with the Roman Scole Tempio and Nova – are all contained under one roof. Jews are also forced to attend church sermons designed to convert them.
1577 Pope Gregory VIII builds the College of Neophytes and imposes a tax on capital
1682 Pope Innocent IX abolishes Jewish loan banks, depriving Jews of a major livelihood.
1753 All Hebrew books in the Ghetto are
confiscated.After great protest only a few texts are returned, heavily censored. Jewish cultural life is stifled.
1793 On 17 January an attempt to burn down a synagogue is miraculously thwarted by a sudden storm.
1798-9 Napoleon’s troops arrive in Rome and the Roman Republic is proclaimed. Jews enrol in the civic guard and raise the Tree of Liberty in Piazza delle Cinque Scole. The Ghetto is opened.
1656 Plague rages for nine months. 800 Jews die out of a Jewish population of 4,127.
1668 Clement IX abolishes the carnival races whereby for centuries Jews had been forced to run through the streets for the amusement of the crowds at carnival time. AtAgone and Testaccio Jews had been ridden as horses. However, now the Jews must pay to decorate the streets and pay homage at the Capitol.
the best- dressed torah scrolls
The women of the ghetto became the seamstresses for the aristocracy. These grand ladies changed their dresses often and those they discarded were donated to their makers. Many of these were converted into Torah covers which can be seen in the Jewish Museum of Rome.
Photo: Araldo de Luca Courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Rome
One of these was donated by Queen Christina of Sweden. The Queen had abdicated her throne, converted to Catholicism and made her home in Rome. She became a leader of the theatrical and cultural life of the city. It is said that it was she who persuaded Pope Clement X to prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. On 15 August 1686 she issued a declaration that Roman Jews were under her protection, signed la Regina – the queen. She supported not only Jews but the Protestant minority. Having decided to wear only male clothes, a Jewish merchant provided all she needed and in return she donated one of her dresses, which was made into a Torah cover.
JEWISH RENAISSANCE OCTOBER 2011 15
A Jew inside a barrel being rolled by the mob B. Pinell Rome 1823
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